Two minute guide to imperialism

In an age of identity politics it’s fashionable to dismiss talk of a ruling class  and imperialism  as the fetishism of old fashioned lefties but this animation, from former economic hitman John Perkins, does a pretty good job of explaining imperialism in two minutes. I part company with his view that it’s a “mutant form of capitalism” – it’s the wholly logical outcome of capital’s non negotiable imperative of seeking the highest return – but let’s not quibble. He’s done well here.

https://www.facebook.com/MintpressNewsMPN/videos/1134150353295165/

Perkins isn’t alone in breaking ranks. Here’s former USSR advisor to Reagan, Stephen Cohen, on an American ruling class – politicians, intelligence agencies, corporate media, Pentagon, $10 trillion for-profit arms sector – energetically building a neoMacarthyite climate to make life tough for an incoming president insane enough not to want war with Russia …

(In a world of views and opinions formed on the back of reason and evidence I shouldn’t have to spell this out but in this  world let me say that supporting said president, where he moves in the face of formidable vested interest and ‘manufactured consent’ toward rapprochement with Russia, makes me neither a Trump fan nor a ‘Putinbot’.)

… and here’s Craig Murray – the ambassador to Uzbekistan Tony Blair sacked for telling us its thuggish leader, a ‘friend in the war on Saddam’, boiled his political foes alive – on how we’ve been sold a dummy on Syrian government use of barrel bombs.